Systems and methods for discovery of, identification of, and ongoing monitoring of viral media assets

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided herein for automatically generating universal metadata for non-linear content when the non-linear content is determined to be viral. To this end, the systems and methods determine a first rate at which first users are consuming non-linear content from a first source. In response to determining that the first rate exceeds the threshold, the systems and methods determine a second source that from which second users are consuming the non-linear content, and a second rate at which the second users are consuming the non-linear content from the second source. In response to determining that the second rate exceeds the threshold, the systems and methods generate universal metadata for the non-linear content by automatically populating metadata fields of by scraping metadata fitting predefined criteria corresponding to the metadata fields from the first source and from the second source, and store the populated metadata fields to a database.

BACKGROUND

In related art systems, editors know in advance what programming will bereleased, and thus are able to manually generate metadata correspondingto that program. The metadata is then used to populate guidanceinformation, such as information used in an interactive televisionprogram guide. In modern days, huge amounts of content is released byusers who generate their own content. Editors do not know about thecontent until it is uploaded by the users. Moreover, because of thevolume of user-released content, it is impossible for editors toreactively generate metadata for this content.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for automatically generatinguniversal metadata for non-linear content when the non-linear content isdetermined to be viral (e.g., popular or temporally popular) content. Byperforming this automatic processing for viral content, applicationswill be able to leverage the universal metadata in various ways, such asin ways that enhance the user's experience in consuming the viralcontent. Moreover, by exercising this automatic processing for viralcontent but not necessarily for other user-uploaded content,efficiencies are achieved by refraining from taking up storage space forthe huge amount of user-uploaded content that is unpopular (which can bebillions upon billions of individual content, if not more).

To this end and others, in some aspects of the disclosure, a mediaguidance application determines a first rate at which first users areconsuming non-linear content from a first source. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine the first rate to be a speed at whichthe first users are accessing the non-linear content from the firstsource during a predetermined time interval. As another example, themedia guidance application may compute a derivative of the speed todetermine an acceleration at which the first users are accessing thenon-linear content from the first source during the predetermined timeinterval. The media guidance application may then assign the first rateto be equal to the acceleration.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the first rate exceeds a threshold. In response to determiningthat the first rate exceeds the threshold, the media guidanceapplication may generate a fingerprint by fingerprinting the non-linearcontent. For example, to generate the fingerprint, the media guidanceapplication may sample a portion of the non-linear content from thefirst source, and may determine, from the sample, unique characteristicsof the non-linear content. The media guidance application may thenassign the unique characteristics of the non-linear content as thefingerprint.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may crawl aplurality of content sources and may generate a plurality offingerprints by fingerprinting non-linear content offered by eachcontent source of the plurality of content sources. The media guidanceapplication may then determine whether a matching fingerprint thatmatches the fingerprint is within the plurality of fingerprints.

For example, the media guidance application may determine whether amatching fingerprint that matches the fingerprint is within theplurality of fingerprints by first sampling a portion of the non-linearcontent from the second source, and determining, from the sample of theportion of the non-linear content from the second source, second uniquecharacteristics of the non-linear content from the second source. Themedia guidance application may compare the unique characteristics of thenon-linear content to the second unique characteristics, and maydetermine that the matching fingerprint is within the plurality offingerprints in response to determining, based on the comparing, that apredetermined amount of the unique characteristics of the non-linearcontent match the second unique characteristics.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, in response todetermining that the matching fingerprint is within the plurality offingerprints, may determine a second rate at which second users of asecond content source corresponding to the matching fingerprint areconsuming the non-linear content from the second content source. Inresponse to determining that the second rate exceeds the threshold, themedia guidance application may generate universal metadata for thenon-linear content by retrieving predefined criteria corresponding tometadata fields (e.g., retrieving known keywords, where the knownkeywords, if found, are predefined to fit within certain metadatafields). The media guidance application may then search the firstcontent source and the second content source for metadata correspondingto the predefined criteria. The media guidance application may storemetadata found by the searching in a database entry designated for theuniversal metadata for the non-linear content.

In some embodiments, the universal metadata includes a universalidentifier. The media guidance application may generate the universalidentifier in various ways. For example, in some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may generate the universal identifier by assigningthe fingerprint to be the universal identifier. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may execute a predefined code script togenerate the universal identifier. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may add a unit to a base identifier that issequentially incremented by the unit for each newly generated universalidentifier.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate theuniversal metadata by generating a unique identifier of the first sourceand the second source (e.g., a label of where the non-linear content wasencountered). The media guidance application may then generate, inconnection with each unique identifier, indicia of unique attributescorresponding to a respective version of the non-linear content offeredby each of the first source and the second source. For example, theunique attributes may indicate quality, length, parental controlratings, and the like.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may monitor thefirst rate and the second rate, and may determine whether either thefirst rate or the second rate exceeds a second threshold that is higherthan the threshold. In response to determining that either the firstrate or the second rate exceeds the second threshold, the media guidanceapplication may generate an alert to be output to an operator.

In some embodiments, further in response to determining that either thefirst rate or the second rate exceeds the second threshold, the mediaguidance application may access entries of a knowledge graph thatdefines relationships and strengths of relationships between variouscontent based on metadata corresponding to that content. The mediaguidance application may transmit a command to the knowledge graph todetermine relationships corresponding to the universal metadata, and mayreceive the determined relationships from the knowledge graph. The mediaguidance application may then supplement the universal metadata with thedetermined relationships.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, further in responseto determining that either the first rate or the second rate exceeds thesecond threshold, may determine whether the universal metadata includesmetadata for a threshold amount of the metadata fields (i.e., was asufficient amount of metadata found to populate, e.g., information for aguidance application?). In response to determining that the universalmetadata includes metadata for the threshold amount of the metadatafields, the media guidance application may refrain from generating thealert, as flagging an operator is not necessary if enough metadata wasscraped. In response to determining that the universal metadata does notinclude metadata for the threshold amount of the metadata fields, themedia guidance application may proceed to generate the alert.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay, to a user, based on the universal metadata, a contentidentifier that identifies the non-linear content. The media guidanceapplication may receive a selection of the content identifier, and, inresponse to receiving the selection, the media guidance application maygenerate for display, based on the universal metadata, attributes of thenon-linear content.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for automaticallygenerating universal metadata for a viral video, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) devicein accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for automaticallygenerating universal metadata for a viral video, as detected based onfingerprints of the viral video from multiple sources, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determining arate at which users are accessing non-linear content, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningwhether users are accessing non-linear content at a rate high enough tomerit alerting an operator to review automatically-generated universalmetadata for the non-linear content, in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for automaticallygenerating universal metadata for a viral video, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Process 100 begins at 102, where a mediaguidance application installed at user equipment and/or a serverdetermines a first rate at which first users are consuming non-linearcontent from a first source. As used herein, the term “rate” is definedto mean a pace at which users are accessing a particular piece ofcontent. The pace may be any measurement of pace, including speed,velocity, acceleration, and the like.

As used herein, the term “viral” is defined to mean content that isaccessed by users at a rate that is high relative to rates that usersare accessing other content. Determining whether the rate is relativelyhigh may be based on comparing the rate to a static, predefinedthreshold, or may be based on comparing the rate to a dynamic thresholdthat adjusts based on a present rate at which other content is beingaccessed. Manners in which the dynamic threshold may be computed aredescribed in further detail below.

As used herein, the term “non-linear content” refers to unscheduledcontent that can be accessed by users at any time that the users desire.For example, on-demand media, streaming media that begins upon command,user-uploaded media that begins playback upon command, and the like arenon-linear content. Non-linear content is distinguished from linearcontent, which is content that is transmitted to users on a curatedschedule (e.g., broadcast television programs).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thefirst rate to be a speed at which the first users are accessing thenon-linear content from the first source during a predetermined timeinterval. The speed may be calculated based on, e.g., amount of accessattempts (e.g., website links selected or clicked, or links on any otherplatform) to the non-linear content by way of the first source over aknown period of time. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may determine the first rate to be an acceleration at whichthe first users are accessing the non-linear content from the firstsource during a predetermined time interval. For example, the mediaguidance application may compute a derivative of the speed to determinean acceleration at which the first users are accessing the non-linearcontent from the first source during the predetermined time interval.The acceleration would indicate a rate at which the speed of user accessto the non-linear content by way of the first source is increasing ordecreasing.

Process 100 continues to 104, where the media guidance applicationdetermines whether the first rate exceeds a threshold. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve the thresholdfrom a database (e.g., either from local storage or remote storage, aswill be described further with respect to FIGS. 2-5 below). In someembodiments, the media guidance application may calculate the threshold.The media guidance application may calculate the threshold based onrates at which other popular non-linear content is being accessed at thepresent time, or at a predefined window preceding the present time.

As an example, if there are five distinct non-linear content that arepresently viral, the media guidance application may calculate thethreshold based on the rate on which the presently viral video is beingaccessed. For example, the media guidance application may perform anyknown mathematical function on the rates of the five distinct non-linearcontent, such as averaging, taking the lowest or highest value, themedian, the mean, etc. The output of any mathematical function (or anycombination thereof) of the rates of presently viral videos may be setto be the value of the threshold.

If the media guidance application determines that the first rate exceedsthe threshold, process 100 continues to 106. If on the other hand, themedia guidance application determines that the first rate does notexceed the threshold, process 100 reverts to 102, where the mediaguidance application continues to monitor the first rate.

At 106, the media guidance application determines a second source fromwhich second users are consuming the non-linear content. The mediaguidance application may determine the second source in a variety ofmanners. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may crawlsources of non-linear content (e.g., websites and other platforms knownto the media guidance application to host non-linear content, websitesand other platforms indicated by an index to host non-linear content,and the like). The media guidance application may determine whether thesecond source contains the same non-linear content using variousprocesses. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maydetermine whether the second source contains the same non-linear contentby comparing metadata indicated by the first source (e.g., title,description, etc. of the non-linear content of the first source) tosimilar metadata indicated by the second source, and depending whether athreshold amount of the metadata matches.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatno metadata is available from the first source to describe thenon-linear content. For example, the non-linear content may be contentgenerated by a user, and thus may be unknown to the media guidanceapplication and may have no corresponding metadata, or insufficientmetadata. In such a scenario, the media guidance application may, insome embodiments, compare electronic communications about the non-linearvideo from the first source to similar electronic communications fromthe second source. For example, if a page on which the non-linear videomay be viewed has a chat feed, the media guidance application maymonitor the communications of the chat feed and may compare them tocommunications of a chat feed from the second source. If sufficientkeywords of the chat feed match between the first source and the secondsource, the media guidance application may determine that the secondsource contains the same non-linear video as the first source. Any knowncomparison algorithm may be used to determine whether sufficientkeywords match.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the second source contains the same non-linear content as thefirst source by performing a comparison of the characteristics of thenon-linear content offered by the first source and the second source.The characteristics may be learned by the media guidance applicationfingerprinting the non-linear content. To generate the fingerprint, themedia guidance application may sample a portion of the non-linearcontent from, e.g., the first source. In the case that the non-linearcontent is audio, the sample may be a predetermine length of the audio.In the case that the non-linear content is video, the sample may be aportion of a still frame (e.g., a defined set of pixels within a stillframe), an entire still frame, a defined set of pixels within aplurality of still frames, or an entirety of a plurality of stillframes. The media guidance application may sample all other forms ofmedia in a similar manner.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, fromthe sample, unique characteristics of the non-linear content. Forexample, the media guidance application may delete portions of thesample that are known to be common to many media assets. For example,edges, blue sky or night sky, moments of silence in audio tracks, andany other common portion of a sample may be deleted. The media guidanceapplication may determine which portions of the sample are common byusing a lookup table that indicates known common portions, and comparingeach portion of the sample against entries of the lookup table. Theremaining portions of the sample are unique characteristics. If nounique characteristics, or insufficient characteristics, remain afterthis comparison, the media guidance application may sample a differentportion of the non-linear content until the media guidance applicationidentifies unique characteristics of the non-linear content. The mediaguidance application may then assign the unique characteristics of thenon-linear content as the fingerprint.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may crawl aplurality of content sources and may generate a plurality offingerprints by fingerprinting non-linear content offered by eachcontent source of the plurality of content sources. The media guidanceapplication may then determine whether a matching fingerprint thatmatches the fingerprint is within the plurality of fingerprints.

For example, the media guidance application may determine whether amatching fingerprint that matches the fingerprint is within theplurality of fingerprints by first sampling a portion of the non-linearcontent from the second source, and determining, from the sample of theportion of the non-linear content from the second source, second uniquecharacteristics of the non-linear content from the second source. Themedia guidance application may compare the unique characteristics of thenon-linear content to the second unique characteristics, and maydetermine that the matching fingerprint is within the plurality offingerprints in response to determining, based on the comparing, that apredetermined amount of the unique characteristics of the non-linearcontent match the second unique characteristics.

The media guidance application may also generate a fingerprint for thenon-linear content at the second source. The media guidance applicationmay compare the fingerprint of the first source to the fingerprint ofthe second source, and determine whether they match. Comparison offingerprints, and a determination as to whether the fingerprints match,is discussed at further length in commonly owned U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/919,425, filed Oct. 21, 2015, presently pending, thedisclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety.Process 100 may continue to 110, for example, if the media guidanceapplication determines that the content from the first source matchesthe content from the second source using any process, such as theprocesses disclosed herein.

At 110, the media guidance application may determine whether the secondrate exceeds the threshold. For example, similar to 104, the mediaguidance application may monitor rates at which sources other than thefirst source are accessed by users. If, at 110, the second rate does notexceed the threshold, process 100 proceeds to 112, where the mediaguidance application continues to monitor the second rate, and to thisend, reverts back to 108. If, however, the second rate does exceed thethreshold, then process 100 continues to 114. Moreover, the mediaguidance application may determine that the non-linear content is viralbecause the non-linear content is being viewed at a high rate frommultiple sources.

At 114, the media guidance application may generate universal metadatafor the non-linear content. As used herein, the term “universalmetadata” is defined to mean metadata corresponding to newly identifiedviral non-linear content that may be used to universally identify thenon-linear content. For example, as the same viral non-linear content isdistributed to other content sources (e.g., by electronic communicationsbetween users, by other users re-uploading the non-linear content, byusers modifying and manipulating the viral non-linear content, etc.),the universal metadata may be used to identify and catalog thenon-linear content. The universal metadata may be updated to indexvarious sources that host the non-linear content, and may be updated toindicate differences in versions (described further below) hosted byeach different source. In some embodiments, at 106, no second source isdetermined from which second users are consuming the non-linear content.The media guidance application may nonetheless proceed to 114 from 104if the first rate exceeds a different, higher threshold that requires afirst rate that is substantially higher than the rate required todetermine virality of content that is accessed at a high rate from twodifferent sources.

In some embodiments, in order to generate the universal metadata, themedia guidance application may retrieve predefined criteriacorresponding to metadata fields. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve template metadata fields (e.g., including ablank title field, a blank description field, and the like). Eachtemplate metadata field may indicate keywords or other types of metadata(e.g., keywords, fingerprint, etc.) that, if found when crawling aplatform that hosts the non-linear content, have a high likelihood ofaccurately populating the respective template metadata field.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may search the firstcontent source and the second content source for metadata correspondingto the predefined criteria. For example, the media guidance applicationmay scrape text from pages of the first content source and the secondcontent source that are hosting the non-linear content. The mediaguidance application may compare keywords from the scraped text to themetadata indicated by the template metadata fields. If the mediaguidance determines, from the comparison, that a match exists, the mediaguidance application may populate the respective metadata field with thekeyword or keywords.

At 116, the media guidance application may store the populated metadatafields to entries of a database. For example, the media guidanceapplication may store metadata found by the searching in a databaseentry designated for the universal metadata for the non-linear content.The media guidance application may later access the database entries forany known purpose (e.g., identifying non-linear content from anothersource, etc.).

In some embodiments, the universal metadata includes a universalidentifier. As used herein, the term universal identifier is defined tomean an identifier that identifies the non-linear content in a mannerthat enables the media guidance application to determine an identity ofthe non-linear content, no matter its source. As will be describedbelow, the universal identifier may be, for example, a fingerprint ofthe non-linear content, an identification code or string, and the like.Non-linear content may have a plurality of universal identifiers, eachof which may be used to identify the non-linear content. The universalidentifier may include additional information (e.g., additional bits,letters, or other indicia of auxiliary information such as version,source of origin, etc.).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate theuniversal identifier by assigning the fingerprint to be the universalidentifier. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may takemultiple fingerprints of the non-linear content, each fingerprintindicating different unique characteristics of the non-linear content.The media guidance application may generate multiple universalidentifiers, each universal identifier including a differentfingerprint. As described above, additional information may be appendedto the fingerprint, such as indicia of the source of the non-linearcontent. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayfingerprint a user interface of the source and append that fingerprintof the user interface to the fingerprint of the non-linear content togenerate the universal identifier.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may execute apredefined code script to generate the universal identifier. Forexample, a random or pseudo-random code script or a non-random algorithmmay be used to generate the universal identifier and assign itpermanently to the non-linear content. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may add a unit to a base identifier that issequentially incremented by the unit for each newly generated universalidentifier. For example, universal identifiers may be assigned on asequential basis, where each time the media guidance applicationencounters unknown non-linear content, the media guidance applicationadds one unit to the last number assigned to the last-encounteredunknown non-linear content.

In some embodiments, in addition to including auxiliary information withthe universal identifier, or instead of including the auxiliaryinformation with the universal identifier, the media guidanceapplication may generate generating a unique identifier of the firstsource and/or the second source (e.g., a label of where the non-linearcontent was encountered) for inclusion in the universal metadata. Themedia guidance application may then generate, in connection with eachunique identifier, indicia of unique attributes corresponding to arespective version of the non-linear content offered by each of thefirst source and the second source. For example, the unique attributesmay indicate quality, length, parental control ratings, and the like.The media guidance application may identify the unique attributes forinclusion in the universal metadata by any known manner, such as anoperator populating the unique attributes, the media guidanceapplication scraping and analyzing keywords from the source (e.g., fromuser chat comments), the media guidance application analyzing quality,length, etc. directly from the non-linear content feed or stream, andthe like.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the non-linear content is sufficiently important that itsexistence should be alerted to an editor. For example, an extremelypopular non-linear content may merit a human pair of eyes to look at andpotentially edit the universal metadata populated for the non-linearcontent. To this end, the media guidance application may monitor thefirst rate and the second rate, and may determine whether either thefirst rate or the second rate exceeds a second threshold that is higherthan the threshold, thus indicating that this viral content is unusuallypopular, even for viral content. In response to determining that eitherthe first rate or the second rate exceeds the second threshold, themedia guidance application may generate an alert to be output to anoperator. The alert may include, for example, a user interfaceindicating each metadata field of the universal metadata, where eachmetadata field is editable by the editor/operator.

In some embodiments, in addition to alerting an editor or operator tounusually popular viral content, the media guidance application maydetermine that resources should be used to supplement the universalmetadata by accessing a knowledge graph that relationships betweenvarious content based on metadata and other attributes corresponding tothat content that are known to the knowledge graph. To this end, furtherin response to determining that either the first rate or the second rateexceeds the second threshold, the media guidance application maytransmit a command to the knowledge graph to determine relationshipscorresponding to the universal metadata, and may receive the determinedrelationships from the knowledge graph. Alternatively, or additionally,natural language logic (e.g., of the knowledge graph), may be used tolisten audio of the non-linear content, or scrape text from image/videoframes of the non-linear content. The knowledge graph may be used toextract, of the audio or scraped text, metadata that describes thenon-linear content. The media guidance application may then supplementthe universal metadata with the determined relationships, and maysupplement the knowledge graph with other metadata and information aboutthe non-linear content. Thus, when a user inputs a search query aboutcontent related to the non-linear content, the knowledge graph asupdated may cause a search engine to output search results includingresults for the non-linear content.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may leverage theknowledge graph to determine a finer read of the first rate and/or thesecond rate. For example, the media guidance application, in addition todetermining rates at which the non-linear content is accessed fromvarious sources, may determine rates at which users chat about thenon-linear content. To do so, the media guidance application may parsekeywords from electronic communications (or spoken communications, astranslated by using a natural language processor), and may compare theparsed keywords to entries of the knowledge graph to determine whetherthe parsed keywords refer to the non-linear content. The media guidanceapplication may generate the first rate and/or the second rate byweighting rates at which users access the non-linear content differentlyfrom rates at which users chat about the non-linear content, and combinethose weighted rates to calculate an aggregate first rate and/or secondrate.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, further in responseto determining that either the first rate or the second rate exceeds thesecond threshold, may determine whether the universal metadata includesmetadata for a threshold amount of the metadata fields. For example, themedia guidance application may determine, for a particularly popularviral content, whether that an alert to the operator may be nonethelessunnecessary because the media guidance application was able to populatethe important fields in the universal metadata. In response todetermining that the universal metadata includes metadata for thethreshold amount of the metadata fields, or for the important fields,the media guidance application may refrain from generating the alert, asflagging an operator is not necessary if enough metadata was filled in.On the other hand, in response to determining that the universalmetadata does not include metadata for the threshold amount of themetadata fields, the media guidance application may proceed to generatethe alert.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay, to a user, based on the universal metadata, a contentidentifier that identifies the non-linear content. For example, themedia guidance application may output a user interface including mediaasset identifiers for a plurality of media assets, where one of themedia asset identifiers indicates the non-linear content, and where thatmedia asset identifier, when selected, leads the user to view thenon-linear content. The media guidance application may receive aselection of the content identifier, and, in response to receiving theselection, the media guidance application may generate for display,based on the universal metadata, attributes of the non-linear content(e.g., further information about the non-linear content), or maygenerate for display the non-linear content itself.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 2-3 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 2-3 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 2-3 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 2 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 200arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 200 may include grid 202 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 204, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 206, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 202 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 208, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 210. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 210 may be provided inprogram information region 212. Region 212 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 202 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 214, recorded content listing 216, andInternet content listing 218. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 200 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings214, 216, and 218 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 202 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 202. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 220. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 220.)

Display 200 may also include video region 222, and options region 226.Video region 222 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 222 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 202. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 226 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 226 may be part of display 200 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 226 may concern features related to program listings in grid 202or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 5. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 3. Video mosaic display 300 includes selectable options 302 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 300, television listings option 304 isselected, thus providing listings 306, 308, 310, and 312 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 300 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 308 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 314 and text portion 316.Media portion 314 and/or text portion 316 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 314 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 300 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 306 islarger than listings 308, 310, and 312), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 4 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 400. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 5.User equipment device 400 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 402. I/O path 402 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 404, which includesprocessing circuitry 406 and storage 408. Control circuitry 404 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 402. I/O path 402 may connect control circuitry 404 (andspecifically processing circuitry 406) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 404 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 406. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 408). Specifically, control circuitry 404 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 404 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 404 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 404 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 5). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 408 thatis part of control circuitry 404. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 408 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 5, may be used to supplementstorage 408 or instead of storage 408.

Control circuitry 404 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 404 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 400. Circuitry 404 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 408 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 400, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 408.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 404 using user inputinterface 410. User input interface 410 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 412 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400. For example, display 412 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 410may be integrated with or combined with display 412. Display 412 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 412 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 412 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 412.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry404. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 404.Speakers 414 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 412 may be played throughspeakers 414. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers414.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 400. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage408), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 404 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 408 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 404 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 410. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 410 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 400 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 400. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 404 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 400. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 400.Equipment device 400 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 410 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 400 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 410.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 400 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 404). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 404 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 404. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 404. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 400 of FIG. 4 can be implemented in system 500 ofFIG. 5 as user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504,wireless user communications device 506, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 4 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, or awireless user communications device 506. For example, user televisionequipment 502 may, like some user computer equipment 504, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 504 may, like some television equipment 502, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 504, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 506.

In system 500, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 5 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 502, user computer equipment 504, wireless user communicationsdevice 506) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 514.Namely, user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, andwireless user communications device 506 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 514 via communications paths 508, 510, and 512, respectively.Communications network 514 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 508, 510, and 512 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 512 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 5 it is awireless path and paths 508 and 510 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 508, 510, and 512, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 514.

System 500 includes content source 516 and media guidance data source518 coupled to communications network 514 via communication paths 520and 522, respectively. Paths 520 and 522 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 508, 510,and 512. Communications with the content source 516 and media guidancedata source 518 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 516 and 518 withuser equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 are shown as throughcommunications network 514, in some embodiments, sources 516 and 518 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 508, 510, and 512.

Content source 516 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 516 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 516 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 516 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 518 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 518may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 518 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 518 mayprovide user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 408, and executedby control circuitry 404 of a user equipment device 400. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 404 of user equipment device 400and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 518) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 518), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 518 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices502, 504, and 506 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 500 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 5.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 514.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a web site via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 516 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 502 and user computer equipment 504may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 506 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 514. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 516 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 518. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, and wirelessuser communications device 506. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 504 or wireless usercommunications device 506 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 504. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 514. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 4.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for automaticallygenerating universal metadata for a viral video, as detected based onfingerprints of the viral video from multiple sources, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 600 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 404 (e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry404 by the media guidance application). Control circuitry 404 may bepart of user equipment (e.g., user television equipment 502, usercomputer equipment 504, and/or wireless communications device 506), orof a remote server separated from the user equipment by way ofcommunications network 514.

Process 600 begins at 602, where control circuitry 404 determines afirst rate at which first users are consuming non-linear content (e.g.,a media asset as described above with reference to FIGS. 2-5) from afirst source (e.g., media content source 516). At 604, control circuitry404 determines whether the first rate exceeds a threshold. If the firstrate does not exceed the threshold, process 600 reverts to 602, wherecontrol circuitry 404 continues to monitor the first rate. If the firstrate does exceed the threshold, process 600 proceeds to 606, wherecontrol circuitry 404 generates a fingerprint by fingerprinting thenon-linear content.

Process 600 continues to 608, where control circuitry 404 causes themedia guidance application to crawl a plurality of content sources(e.g., media content sources 516) and generate a plurality offingerprints by fingerprinting non-linear content offered by eachcontent source of the plurality of content sources. At 610, controlcircuitry 404 determines whether there is a matching fingerprint thatmatches the fingerprint within the plurality of fingerprints. If thereis no matching fingerprint, control circuitry 404 ends process 600. Ifthere is a matching fingerprint, process 600 continues to 612.

At 612, control circuitry 404 determines a second rate at which secondusers of a second content source corresponding to the matchingfingerprint are consuming the non-linear content from the second contentsource. At 614, control circuitry 404 determines whether the second rateexceeds the threshold. If the second rate does not exceed the threshold,control circuitry 404 ends process 600. If the second rate exceeds thethreshold, process 600 continues to 616.

At 616, control circuitry 404 retrieves predefined criteriacorresponding to metadata fields (e.g., from media guidance data source518 by way of communications network 514). At 618, control circuitry 404searches the first content source and the second content source (and/orrelated entries from respective media guidance data source 518 of eachcontent source) for metadata corresponding to the predefined criteria.At 620, control circuitry 404 stores metadata found by the searching ina database entry as universal metadata for the non-linear content (e.g.,at storage 408 or media guidance data source 518).

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determining arate at which users are accessing non-linear content, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. Process 700 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 404 (e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry404 by the media guidance application). Control circuitry 404 may bepart of user equipment (e.g., user equipment 100 and/or 110, each ofwhich may have any or all of the functionality of user televisionequipment 502, user computer equipment 504, and/or wirelesscommunications device 506), or of a remote server separated from theuser equipment by way of communications network 514.

Process 700 begins at 702, where control circuitry 404 begins asubroutine for determining the first rate or the second rate (e.g., forresolving 602 or 612). At 704, control circuitry 404 determines a speedat which the first users or second users are accessing the non-linearcontent from the first source or the second source (e.g., media contentsource 516) during a predetermined time interval.

At 706, control circuitry 404 computes a derivative of the speed todetermine an acceleration at which the first users are accessing thenon-linear content from the first source during the predetermined timeinterval. The predetermined time may be a default time or variable timeas indicated by data in storage 408 or media guidance data source 518.Process 700 continues to 708, where control circuitry 404 assigns thefirst rate or the second rate to be equal to the acceleration.

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningwhether users are accessing non-linear content at a rate high enough tomerit alerting an operator to review automatically-generated universalmetadata for the non-linear content, in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure. Process 800 may be executed by control circuitry 404(e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry 404 by the mediaguidance application). Control circuitry 404 may be part of userequipment (e.g., user television equipment 502, user computer equipment504, and/or wireless communications device 506), or of a remote serverseparated from the user equipment by way of communications network 514.

Process 800 begins at 802, where control circuitry 404 monitors thefirst rate and the second rate at which users access the non-linearcontent from the first source or the second source. At 804, controlcircuitry 404 determines whether either the first rate or the secondrate exceed a second threshold that is higher than the threshold. Ifcontrol circuitry 404 determines that the first rate or the second ratedo not exceed the second threshold, process 800 ends. If, however,control circuitry 404 does exceed the second threshold, process 800continues to 806.

At 806, control circuitry 404 determines whether the universal metadataincludes metadata for a threshold amount of the metadata fields. If theuniversal metadata does not include metadata for a threshold amount ofmetadata fields, process 800 continues to 808, where control circuitry404 refrains from generating an alert (e.g., using display 412 orspeakers 414) for an operator to review/edit the universal metadata. If,however, the universal metadata does include metadata for a thresholdamount of metadata fields, process 800 continues to 810. At 810, controlcircuitry 404 generates an alert (e.g., by way of display 412 orspeakers 414) for an operator to review the universal metadata. Process800 may refrain from continuing to 810 until a threshold amount of timehas passed. This would enable the media guidance application to attemptto scrape a sufficient amount of universal metadata until the thresholdamount of time has been met, before generating an alert for an operatorto review the metadata.

It should be noted that processes 600-800 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in, or describedwith respect to, FIGS. 1 and 4-5. For example, any of processes 600-800may be executed by control circuitry 404 (FIG. 4) as instructed bycontrol circuitry implemented on user equipment 502, 504, 506 (FIG. 5),and/or a user equipment for selecting a recommendation. In addition, oneor more steps of processes 600-800 may be incorporated into or combinedwith one or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 6-8may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition,the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 6-8 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed inany order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lagor increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should benoted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 1 and 4-5 could be used to perform one or more of the steps inFIGS. 6-8.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present disclosure may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent disclosure may be executed using processing circuitry. Forinstance, determining the first rate or the second rate may beperformed, e.g., by processing circuitry 406 of FIG. 4. The processingcircuitry, for instance, may be a general purpose processor, acustomized integrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmablegate array (FPGA) within user equipment 400, media content source 516,or media guidance data source 518. For example, the non-linear content,as described herein, may be stored in, and retrieved from, storage 408of FIG. 4, or media guidance data source 518 of FIG. 5. Furthermore,processing circuitry, or a computer program, may update attributes ofthe media guidance application, such as the universal metadata, storedwithin storage 408 of FIG. 4 or media guidance data source 518 of FIG.5.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to“convention,” any such reference is merely for the purpose of providingcontext to the invention(s) of the instant disclosure, and does not formany admission as to what constitutes the state of the art.

1-51. (canceled)
 52. A method comprising: determining, by a server, afirst rate of content consumption from a first source and a second rateof content consumption from a second source; and in response todetermining that the second rate exceeds the predetermined threshold:generating universal metadata for the content by populating metadatafields with metadata fitting predefined criteria from the first sourceand the second source; and storing the populated metadata fields toentries of a database.
 53. The method of claim 52, wherein, continuingto monitor the first rate in response to determining that the first ratedos not exceed the predetermined threshold.
 54. The method of claim 52,wherein, continuing to monitor the second rate in response todetermining that the second rate dos not exceed the predeterminedthreshold.
 55. The method of claim 52, wherein, the first rate ofcontent consumption from the first source is consumed by first users.56. The method of claim 52, wherein, the second rate of contentconsumption from the second source is consumed by second users.
 57. Themethod of claim 52, wherein the content is non-linear content.
 58. Themethod of claim 52, wherein, the populating of metadata fields withmetadata fitting predefined criteria is performed automatically inresponse to determining that the second rate exceeds the predeterminedthreshold.
 59. The method of claim 52, wherein, the universal metadatais metadata corresponding to a newly identified viral non-linear contentthat is used to universally identify the content.
 60. The method ofclaim 52, wherein determining the first rate comprises: determining aspeed at which the content is accessed from the first source during apredetermined time interval; computing a derivative of the speed todetermine an acceleration at which the content is accessed from thefirst source during the predetermined time interval; and assigning thefirst rate to be equal to the acceleration.
 61. The method of claim 52,wherein the universal metadata includes a universal identifier.
 62. Themethod of claim 61, wherein the universal identifier is generated by atleast one of: assigning a fingerprint to be the universal identifier;executing a predefined code script to generate the universal identifier;and adding a unit to a base identifier that is sequentially incrementedby the unit for each newly generated universal identifier.
 63. Themethod of claim 52, wherein, in response to determining that either thefirst rate or the second rate exceeds the predetermined threshold,generating an alert to be output to an operator.
 64. A system,comprising: communications circuitry configured to access a first sourceand a second source; and control circuitry configured to: determine afirst rate of content consumption from a first source and a second rateof content consumption from a second source; and in response todetermining that the second rate exceeds the predetermined threshold:generate universal metadata for the content by populating metadatafields with metadata fitting predefined criteria from the first sourceand the second source; and the communications circuitry configured toaccess a database for storing the populated metadata fields to entriesof the database.
 65. The system of claim 64, wherein, continuing tomonitor the first rate in response to determining that the first ratedos not exceed the predetermined threshold.
 66. The system of claim 64,wherein, continuing to monitor the second rate in response todetermining that the second rate dos not exceed the predeterminedthreshold.
 67. The system of claim 64, wherein, the populating ofmetadata fields with metadata fitting predefined criteria is performedautomatically in response to determining that the second rate exceedsthe predetermined threshold.
 68. The system of claim 64, whereindetermining the first rate comprises: determining a speed at which thecontent is accessed from the first source during a predetermined timeinterval; computing a derivative of the speed to determine anacceleration at which the content is accessed from the first sourceduring the predetermined time interval; and assigning the first rate tobe equal to the acceleration.
 69. The system of claim 64, wherein theuniversal metadata includes a universal identifier.
 70. The system ofclaim 69, wherein the universal identifier is generated by at least oneof: assigning a fingerprint to be the universal identifier; executing apredefined code script to generate the universal identifier; and addinga unit to a base identifier that is sequentially incremented by the unitfor each newly generated universal identifier.
 71. The system of claim64, wherein, in response to determining that either the first rate orthe second rate exceeds the predetermined threshold, generating an alertto be output to an operator.